[h2][b]STEPHEN TOLKIEN[/b] and [b]GEORGE R. R. ORWELL[/b] would have been proud, 10/10[/h2]
A political satire dripping with magic and mystery that falters only in the most inconsequential way. Totally, highly, overwhelmingly, strongly ([i]and other emphasizing words[/i]) recommended.
[b]Tea and Sympathy[/b]
I kicked off the game by investigating a tea shop that has been [i]uhm[/i] redecorated with char and ash. So I went around town asking the typical ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ and begin assembling a possible explanations for what has happened. Without realizing its effort, the game has already wrapped its politics around me but in a good way.
The game allowed me to spend the majority of my time choosing actions that favor certain political opinions. Some of these choices have a long lasting effects on the city. And at the finish line, you get to cast your vote once all have been said and done. I think its a lovely way to end the game and underscore my interpretation of its political message. [i]Regardless of which side one chooses, or vote for, the casting of a ballot is only a statement of beliefs and nothing more. Choosing to act on these beliefs on a daily basis is what will materialize it into reality[/i]. Such an easily forgotten, obvious truth that I remembered through.... a game where I tried to score a home run with both an angel and an orc.
Esoteric Ebb presents politics for what it really is, a sum of interests and motives. In the game, power is merely a tool to achieve the desired outcome and never the point of any political movement. Too many games mistake political factions to simply saying ‘[i]we’re the brave and strong group, we’ve got guns, and bullets and TRT and stuff[/i]’, with the typical opposing group of ‘[i]we’re the smart group, we’ve got beakers and test tubes and “synths” and stuff[/i]’, but then ultimately all groups having the same agenda of, boringly, wanting to rule the [strike]wasteland[/strike] world just for the heck of it.
The characters in the game, regardless of their behavior, were all endearing. None of them ever tried to be a deity of any virtue, which to me is honestly refreshing. When character politics is reduced to the basics of ‘I want a livable wage’ or ‘we just want a place to live’, I immediately sympathize as a simple working folk myself.
[i]A few may argue that a certain armored antagonist in the game was somewhat a deity of faith and strong-will. Sure, there is some merit to that argument, but he was self aware of his flaws and bad choices. It allowed him to appear as a simple dude who just wanted to do the right thing regardless of the cost. He had a virtue, but he was never a deity of it.[/i]
I cannot stress enough how much impact the writing of the game had on me. I’m no editor or writer to even tell good writing from bad, but I can tell which ones I like and what they mean to me. This one meant a lot.
[b]Nothing I Can’t Overlook[/b]
Lets make this quick, because I don’t think the issues I encountered are worth dissecting but I will include it anyway
The ending spoke of the little ant rolling around in my pocket. This is not possible as I remember finishing that quest, and returning the critter to the colony. But later in the epilogue, the game has led on about the possibility of seeing the ant again in the future, acknowledging my completion of the said quest. I don’t recall picking up another ant prior to the ending, so this one was a head scratch’er.
I entered a cursed area engulfed by a snow storm. Ragn, protects his face from the storm with his arm. This becomes his standard pose inside this particular area.. After leaving the cursed area, my character never reverted to its normal pose. Reloading the game seem to have fixed the problem.
In the Pillar Crossing map, there is a stair case that I’ve always had an issue of climbing. Fidgeting left and right in the controls seem to fix the issue. I only noticed this issue as I frequently use this map to travel from the town center to the water lane.
In the Pillar Crossing map again, there are incidents where the pathway to the Goblin lair won’t stop from highlighting even if I’ve moved my mouse to another portion of the map. Game breaker? Nope. Not really.
Near the end of the game, there is a section where none of your skills are visible on screen. Only your character and the environment. I’m guessing my mouse brushed past one of the spells in its original position showing the spell description. I could not get the description to disappear up until I regained full control over my character.
Once I’ve had quite a collection of quick saves, the game tends to slow down during the loading screen. So I emptied my quick saves and relied on manually saving the game instead.
[b]Still Reading Eh?[/b]
Esoteric Ebb is a charming twenty hour experience if played in a leisurely pace. You get to explore a living, breathing community of interesting characters and clashing interests. [b]Highly recommended![/b]
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[b]S P O I L E R S A H E A D[/b]
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So Ever-Glad hired a killer to take the protagonist out because he just might stop the event that Ever-Glad wanted to happen. But then immediately backs off when he foresees that Ragn just might be the fellow to help him or simply no longer be an obstacle to his plans? Where is the follow through? I refused his invite and stopped the return of Urth. Now what for Ever-Glad? The Ebb continues further reducing magic and his influence in the world until he becomes totally irrelevant? For a god with the knowledge of eternity, this plot twist seems awfully careless, dare I say un-god like, thus trivializing an otherwise interesting character.
Paladin Gorm needed to reap 27 souls to fulfill the return of Urth. Signed a pact with Ever-Glad due to their mutual goal of returning the Esoteric Era. Ever-Glad supplied various abilities and powers to the assassin he hired, but could not provide a veteran combatant, like Gorm, the ability to kill 27 Urth believers? Was there even a need for Gorm to formulate the needless complicated plan of securing a necklace of fireballs? What I’m trying to get at is that I think he can competently kill 27 people on his own with his new found powers. Lets not forget that you will encounter a lot of individuals in the city that are not faithful to Urth. In fact some of them flat out hated the god. There is no guarantee that blowing up the secret tunnel during election day will give him the 27 faithful souls he needed. The plan seems sketchy to me.
Also, the necklace of fireball blew out the door of the tea shop and burned everything INSIDE and not outside. The potion shop next door seemed fine. The newspaper vendor is fine. I’m sorry but looking at the damage it caused, I just can’t believe that storing this device inside a tunnel will provide Gorm the amount of casualties he is looking for.
These are but nitpicking to an otherwise immersive and enjoyable CRPG. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
